Due to popular demand and the wish to maintain old traditions, last year's rant thread was locked and this new one started!We weren't going to do that this time, but you guys wanted it, and it's nice to be able to give you some of the things you want at DD. ^_^

I will begin- Late Sunday night here right now, I'm getting a bunch of chores out of the way in one go, as is my want… doing the washing, washing up, making my bed…I come out into the back room to a bit of a lake.The washing machine has flooded out of the laundry into my studio.I'm not positive why but I think it may be because I didn't do up this bottom seal thing tight enough last time I emptied out water from there. So I have towels all over the floor now.

New years resolutions… well the whole diet and fitness thing really, got my diet I start tuesday. tuesday is when the grapefruit arrives. GUH! Going to get back into a routine doing Karate and walking more, the last few weeks have been fitness free.Also plan to finish a few of my outstanding projects…And get down and do some more eD modelling, I keep slacking off from it and haven't finished some I'm going to need very soon. Anyway better go, off to do a couple of hours Karate now. Not feeling up to it really but if I don't then I'm off to a bad start.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - I had the last post in the 2011 thread! (totally not expecting that, but - hey now. (ithinkitsbecauseicalledgullasadollbaby) *he is a dollbaby*

So it's not a news report, is it? I am SO HAPPY to see the tail end of 2011!!!!!! Today was OKAY (Winnah Winnah): No attitude adjustments required. No: “Oh, tomorrow will probably be better” So far, I'm loving this year! woot!! I'm one for one :) (er, sorry about the water stuff, Oz). anyway, more About ME:

Resolutions? let things float. If it's not a big deal; don't make it a big deal. If it's a big deal, deal with it, but don't let it deal on Moi. I tend to take things too seriously. This year: p-e-r-s-p-e-c-t-i-v-e.

Well, my first post in THIS thread. Now let's hope that things go smoothly this year.

Oh… and the admins being ranting about being Humanty's “Vanguards of Destruction” on March 6 of this year (if that's the correct date) and I see giant 2km sized robotic cuttlefish/beetles up in the sky, I'm gonna go hide in the local church.

Ah, yes. “Reapers” (quoted with the thumb and index fingers). That immortal race of sentient starships allegedly posing as this site's admins. That claim has been dismissed…

My resolution is to go to a gym and actually tone and build some of that muscle I've developed. I haven't got the discipline to do any more with it n my own.

Also, to work faster on my art… Or maybe finally build a 3D model for my mechs so they don't take WEEKS to draw in all different poses and angles and stuff. I know those mechanical shapes (mentally), from back-to-front, but they're so complex with all the parts and their interrelationships, it's maddening…And because many of the shapes are relatively simple (not many angles), makes it much harder to draw than more complicated angular or organic shapes because you can't fake it as easily- if you make any mistakes it's a thousand times more glaring and obvious (makes it look WRONG), then with organic stuff, because there are only a few ways it can look “right”.

That's an interesting dichotomy, at least to me- simple shapes are harder to draw that more complex ones. ie. it's way easier to draw a tree than a house.

HAPPY NEW YE… You know what? Forget it. Everybody always wishes each other a happy new year. It's not really my style to say stuff I don't mean. Why don't we all just say what we really mean?

I wish for all of you to have a trouble-free year. I wish for you all to have a year that doesn't in any way interfere with mine in a negative way. I wish for you all to find what it is that you need, to reach a goal that betters your own life as well as the lives of those around you.

And let's be honest, fighting for something important, striving to reach a worthy goal, all that shit…

It has nothing to do with happiness.

- - -

So, as you can see I'm not really happy. I'm getting more depressed every day and I don't think it will stop until I reach MY goals. The sad thing is that I don't even know what those goals are anymore. It's getting hard to find something… Anything… to fight for.

The feeling you get, right before you poop. That's the best feeling in the world.

Re: goals.This may sound very trite and glib, but usually the best way is to start by setting achievable goals and work you way up from there to bigger and better. If you aim for something too big, too high and too nebulous and ill defined you will fail, but if you shoot for something much easier then you'll get it and be happy that you did- THEN you set the bar a little higher next time and so on, till in the end getting the big one isn't really such a stretch afterall.

Very glib and easy to say, but that is how you do it. Just try not to lose sight of what you want at the end of it and get distracted along the way by your small goals…That's not a bad thing either, but it's something else entirely (i.e. changing life goals and all that stuff).

Such as when I watch those cute animal vids. Yes, I like cute things. I'm not obsessed with being “manly” or anything. Sometimes I'll see comments from certain types of people about how the videos are nothing but a way to exploit those cute animals. I know some people ethically treat animals, but it's a bit extreme when they accuse the maker of a video of animal abuse when it's clear that it's not. Like that ‘whack a kitty“ video… It’s clear that the kittens are just being tapped and that they're having fun, yet some people are screaming the ”abuse“ card…

Yep… The world is full of idiots. And for paying attention to those comments and letting them annoy me sometimes I've proven that I'm one of them…

Okay. Back to The Sims 3 and doing everything I can to make sure my Sim has a… ”burning" passion for life… >:-D

Resolutions? Make 2012 better than 2011. Finish projects. Last year saw me finish two webcomics so this year? Finish two webcomics and work on my very rusty drawing skills. And maybe, just maybe start advertising to build the readership. As always work on my workhabits. There really are enough hours in the day, I just have to stop wasting them. :) And clear out the stash in the closet. Seems I negated all the work I did last year on cleaning out the closet with a binge of buying.

Such as when I watch those cute animal vids. Yes, I like cute things. I'm not obsessed with being “manly” or anything. Sometimes I'll see comments from certain types of people about how the videos are nothing but a way to exploit those cute animals. I know some people ethically treat animals, but it's a bit extreme when they accuse the maker of a video of animal abuse when it's clear that it's not. Like that ‘whack a kitty“ video… It’s clear that the kittens are just being tapped and that they're having fun, yet some people are screaming the ”abuse" card…

Well I somewhat agree with you there. If the animal is not being physically being abused in the video then you hardly can call … for example a video were a puppy stares at a wide angled lens, an abuse. But on the other hand I do see were the extremists are going.Sure, using an animal for your own pleasure (sexually) is an abuse and technically if you are using the animal to get money out of it (by maybe selling cute puppy videos of your dawg) for your own personal gain without sharing the wealth wit it, is an abuse in itself but I personally think that one is not very rational thinking…

Crap, makes me think of my dog. I've been at home with my parents for the last three weeks and today I went back to my appartment. So as I was leaving I leaned down to the dog and calmly ecxplained to it that I was leaving, he had to be a good dog and we'd probably see each other soon. And how he looked at me, kind of he was heartbroken… dammit…

Niccea wrote:I have been smelling sulfur all day today and it is driving me crazy. I don't know if it is me or my clothes. I use a sulfur face mask and I feel like I might have gotten some on my clothes.

I'm just gonna spell it out for you:You're either being stalked by the devil or you accidentally put on his clothes…

The feeling you get, right before you poop. That's the best feeling in the world.

It seems like a good idea to start a new thread for a new year…the 2011 thread was SO huge!

Generally I'm a pretty reflective, “in my head” type of cat. Every occasion is one for reflection, it seems.

On New Year's, though, i don't reflect so much (maybe I'm a vampire??? No. Just a lame punster).

I guess I've got some resolutions, kind of…kind of deep level stuff to do with building better character boundaries in a couple specific ways, and a more dedicated attention to my life's mission. With a very laid back temperment, I tend to drift a bit and be too relaxed about these things.

Actually, beginning my comic and updating it has been a HUGE step in that direction….though my other writing work tends to be procrastinated upon, I've found that I'm pretty good at staying on top of the comic pages.

I'm working on tying some of my other pursuits to my comic for that reason….like, before I do the day's comic script or page, I'll make myself do five-ten screenplay pages. I'm honing in on my actual system this week (ironically, a week that looks like I'll NOT be updating my comic…hahaha).

When Romeo cleans his ears it's about the cutest thing in the world. I wanted to post a video of it to go along with the bunny videos Lonne was linking to, but he keeps stopping as soon as I get my camera.

—

I've had hiccups all evening. I'm currently testing my theory that eating lots of chocolate ice cream (Haagan-Dazs) will make them go away.

Hippie Van wrote:When Romeo cleans his ears it's about the cutest thing in the world. I wanted to post a video of it to go along with the bunny videos Lonne was linking to, but he keeps stopping as soon as I get my camera.

—

I've had hiccups all evening. I'm currently testing my theory that eating lots of chocolate ice cream (Haagan-Dazs) will make them go away.

Bunnies are always nice. Whether they grow up into cute rabbits is up to the owner, I guess. I hear that when they're fully grown some of them get abandoned or something like that which I find to be sad… :(

I guess if you want to eat a ton of ice cream instead of holding your breath that's fine. Just don't be surprised if you gain a ton of weight… O_O

Abandoned dogs are sad, but not bunnies usually. They LOVE being wild and free and even though they look cute, fluffy and a little pathetic, they are far more adapted to global conditions anywhere than any dog or even any cat. Bunnies do just f i n e on their own.

Not that you should abandon them of course though… that survivability makes them problematic for any environment pretty quickly.

Seems I may now be allergic to my washing detergent, or at least it seems the most likely candidate and I have some powerful antihistimines to relieve the effects. I may be able to close my hands soon. Waiting to see if they help before deciding if I go out for my birthday as planned. yup it's that day again when i officially turn a year older. MEH!

That's a hell of a complicated excuse to get out of doing the dishes…But then there's always rubber gloves ^_^…when your hands are the right size to fit into them again of course.

—–

So tired…But I have to come up with a topic for the next Quackcast and a guest and send e-mail to people to ask for readings of the soap… noooo…! D:

——

I've worked out what has been really starting to piss me off about British comedies now:While the humour and dialogue is often clever and drier than the US equivalents, British comedy characters are usually extremely shallow!

In British comedy typically characters are based on “types” and all a character's personality, actions and humour comes from that “type”, they rarely ever deviate from it. So when you get to know the type the characters will be far too predicable and the comedy starts to get a bit irritating.

In American comedy the situations are more important for comedy, and THOSE can get repetitive etc, but the characters are usually far more human- American comedy characters are developed more like real people, they grow and change and develop a lot more over time, so they have way more longevity than their British counterparts.

British characters, even when they're long lived (pretty rare) usually still revert to “type” even when they grow a bit. Even in a brilliant comedy like The Office, Gareth still stays the same, so does David Brent etc. …that's ok since the writing was great and it was a short lived show, but in other stuff it's a problem. I'm watching Green Wing from the beginning at the moment and it's got a huge cast of noted British comedy actors, but they're all playing extremely simple stereotypes, so it's a great example of this problem.

Lonnehart wrote:Bunnies are always nice. Whether they grow up into cute rabbits is up to the owner, I guess. I hear that when they're fully grown some of them get abandoned or something like that which I find to be sad… :(

Yeah, a lot of bunnies are abandoned or dropped off at shelters. Rabbits are still pretty darn cute fully grown, though. I think it has more to do with people not understanding how much work they are until they have them. My bunnies are the most high-maintenance out of any of my pets, even the dog. I think it's worth it, but I guess a lot of people don't.

Often they're not taken care of properly, too. I've had a couple friends who got bunnies for free from people who no longer wanted them, and then those bunnies died only a few weeks or months later.

ozoneocean wrote:Abandoned dogs are sad, but not bunnies usually. They LOVE being wild and free and even though they look cute, fluffy and a little pathetic, they are far more adapted to global conditions anywhere than any dog or even any cat. Bunnies do just f i n e on their own.Not that you should abandon them of course though… that survivability makes them problematic for any environment pretty quickly.

You're usually right about most things, oz, but I have to call you out on this one. Pet rabbits live about 10 years. Bunnies in the wild often don't make it past a year, and seldom past two. Rabbits are very delicate - they can literally die from fright, and often do. The reason rabbits as a whole survive is that they can reproduce like crazy. Individual rabbits don't live long at all.

Now, you take a little Lionhead Lop or Rex rabbit or whatever who's never had to search for food, or make a burrow, or encounter a predator(or who may even have befriended their natural predators like my guys), and they're not going to make it very long at all. Wild bunnies may love being wild and free, but I can assure you that domesticated bunnies do not.

A couple of years ago, my husband found a nest of four teeny tiny wild bunnies (don't know what happened to the Mama). We should have left them alone, but we were enchanted - the cutest things ever. They were big enough that they had their eyes open and all their hair, but small enough that you could hold three in one hand.

We saw them for a couple of weeks, but the runt failed and died (it was heartbreaking - because he/she would hop its little bunny hops to come and greet us, and then couldn't), one we found decapitated, and two we never found.

When we were trying to do something to help the runt, I located a wildlife shelter, and the woman advised that there was almost nothing to do. When young bunnies start to fail, they go quickly, and it had already taken me about 2 hours to locate her. She was the one who noted that it was nature's way - it's why there are so many bunnies to a litter, and so many litters to a rabbit.

—On another note, I've decided to acknowledge my long-on-hiatus comic, and tried to customize the background, but I can't seem to get rid of the automatic header (comic title) or camouglage it. It seems others have, tho. How do you do it? please tell. :D

I dunno Hippie… I think our experiences are very different.North American bunnies are probably more specialised and individualised breeds (in general). Aussie bunnies, the common kind, are mostly descended from the same stock that were imported for hunting in the late 1700s/early 1800s. They're hardy and tough little buggers. I had some when I was little and they didn't need much care at all- Always lived in outside hutches etc.

The last one I had (Peter Rabbit) was the only one to die earlier than normal, it was when they did the full release of the modified Calicivirus to finally control the feral rabbit problem here…The trouble was they there were no warnings or anything for domestic pet owners. Peter just wouldn't move and was shaking one day and died on my kitchen floor tn a towel while I was taking to the vet on the phone. He said there was absolutely nothing he'd be able to do even if I got him there in time. I was just so powerless and heartbroken that day. (apparently the vet had been seeing a LOT of deaths of bunnies from calicivirus at the time)

Then I had to go to Uni to hand in artwork… it was close to when exams had to be done and all that and last time that happened my old, much loved cat had died, so it was really embarrassing and humiliating to have something like that as my excuse again while I was still grieving…

But I digress. You often see the common sort of released bunny living wild in the suburbs, parks and the beach here- not dwarves and stuff like that, but rabbits from outside hutches that get out and go free.I'll grant you that many would be from small colonies (the park and beach ones), but the ones living wild in back lanes are definitely escapees because they're known individuals.

Niccea wrote:@ayes: My go to solution is to make an image that is just one pixel big. That is how I hid the navigation buttons in my CYOA.

Thanks, Niccea - but I don't understand. Upload a background image that is only one pixel and that will hide the header and/or nav buttons? I can certainly try it, but I don't understand how one pixel can do that.

(and - uh, CYOA? I don't think it's cover-your-own-ass. or is it?) :D

—Oh Ho: girls' night in while the boys go do their basketball thang!Lobster ravioli and WAREHOUSE 13. um-um X)

Wait. I need tomato paste. Do I Have tomato paste? I'm not sure. I NEED TOMATO PASTE